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Commissioners press traffic and stacking concerns for proposed drive-through at Eagle Marketplace
Summary
Commissioners questioned whether current code adequately addresses queuing for drive-throughs; staff said ITD and ACHD did not require a traffic impact study and noted the site has 32 parking spaces while city code requires five queuing spaces for drive-up service.
Traffic and queuing at the proposed drive-through drew repeated questions from commissioners during the public hearing on the Eagle Marketplace rezone and conditional use permit.
"There are 32 existing parking spaces, and our code only speaks to, requiring 5 queuing spaces for drive up service," Andrew Glaspell, planning staff, told the commission during the staff presentation. He added that ITD and ACHD had reviewed the application and did not require a traffic impact study for the proposal.
Commissioners pressed the point that different kinds of drive-through users (coffee shops, quick-service restaurants) generate very different stacking demands, with one commissioner saying, "That's probably a code amendment that we should look at because that's sorely outdated." The commission's motion to approve the rezone and CUP included a provision that would require a new conditional use permit unless a traffic report showed a new tenant's queuing impacts were equal to or less than the previous tenant's.
The exchange highlighted a gap between existing code requirements and commissioners' concern about real-world queuing at high-volume drive-throughs on Chinden Boulevard.
